Welcome to Part Three of our Web Site Traffic Blueprint article series, where we show you how to turn your website into an automated web traffic machine using WordPress.
In Part One of this series, we explained why using an expertly configured WordPress website or blog is the key to automating traffic to your website …
(With an expertly configured WordPress blog, all you have to do to automatically drive traffic is add web content on a regular basis!)
In Part 2, we discussed the setup phase. We explained the best way to start if you don’t have a web presence yet, how to set everything up if you already have a site, and what to do if your site has been built using WordPress.
(In Part two we show you where to set up a WordPress website on your domain)
In this section, we discuss the configuration stage of the traffic system. We will show you how a WordPress site should be configured to attract traffic automatically just by consistently posting fresh content to your web site.
WordPress Web Traffic Automation System – Configuration Phase
Being able to drive more traffic to one’s website is often cited by many website owners as their greatest challenge online. With competition making business survival progressively tougher businesses are exploring any and every advantage they can that can help you increase their competitiveness online.
The ability to generate traffic on demand can provide website owners with a tremendous advantage over other competitors. For WordPress users, having an expertly configured website allows their business to get off with a flying start as soon as their website is launched.
The Configuration Stage Is The Difference
There is a significant difference between an expertly configured WordPress site and a site that has been professionally set up by an expert website developer but not necessarily configured to take advantage of everything WordPress can offer.
Here is a simple way to explain the difference:
An expertly configured WordPress site gives you a web presence with online business marketing automation!
(An expertly configured website gives you a professional web presence with a built-in automated online business marketing tool!)
Not only does a whole lot more work go into building and integrating an automated online business marketing system into your website, it also takes a special kind of expert knowledge.
Let’s illustrate this with a joke.
Are Experts Worth The Money They Charge?
All is running smoothly in the gizmo plant when all machinery suddenly grinds to a halt.
As no one can figure out what’s wrong, the floor manager decides to call in an expert to fix the problem.
Promptly after arriving, the expert heads out immediately to the main control box. After staring silently at the board for 2 minutes or less, the expert then takes out a little hammer and makes a single tap near the left edge of the control unit.
Immediately, the whole workshop lights up and begins to work as before.
The plant manager is greatly relieved as he thanks the expert, who leaves just as quickly as he had arrived.
A couple of days later, the manager receives a request for payment of $5,000.
Confused and outraged, the manager rings the expert. Demanding to know why they were charged such a large amount of money for so little time spent delivering such minimal amount of work, he then requests an itemized invoice and hangs up.
The next day, an invoice arrives in the manager’s intray. Upon opening it, this is what he sees:
The #1 challenge most businesses face online is driving web traffic to their sites.
How much money did the plant stand to lose when production ground to a halt and no one in the factory floor had the expertise required to fix it? Did the expert in our story not have the right to be compensated fairly for investing years developing the knowledge, skills and expertise that allowed him to assess and repair a very costly problem?
Similarly, if you could have a site set up and configured so all you have to do is publish new content and Google, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and dozens of other online properties would be immediately notified, how much time and money would this save you?
(How much better would your business be if you could automate the process of driving traffic to your site?)
While the solution to many challenges often seems ridiculously easy in hindsight, it rarely turns out to be that way.
Knowing how to expertly configure a WordPress site requires more than adding some pages with content and configuring site settings for clients. It requires knowing where to tap! In other words, knowing things like:
- Which programs you need to install to get desired functionalities on your site.
- Which third-party services you need to set up and activate to achieve certain results
- Which options need to be configured to make sure everything works as envisioned, etc.
(Driving web traffic automatically with WordPress is a process that requires expertise)
Although this part of the traffic automation system may not seem technically challenging, it can be quite involved and complicated. The reason why is because it’s not as simple as installing a piece of software, tweaking some options and settings in your admin area … it’s all this and much more.
Expertly configuring your website involves the integration of many components including your web server, your website, and various external sites …
(Expertly configuring your website involves more than just configuring some settings in WordPress)
If all the steps involved in the configuration process were to be flowcharted, it would look something like this …
(A simplified flowchart showing the activities involved in the configuration process)
Let’s examine these steps in more detail.
Your Web Server
We’re not talking about the process of configuring your web-hosting account for website installation purposes. We’re talking about tweaking settings and options in your web server specifically for handling all web traffic …
(During the configuration phase, your web server settings need to be checked for handling both good and bad traffic)
Not all traffic is welcome traffic. Some of the web traffic your site will attract will be unwanted traffic like spam, malicious threats, bot-hacking attempts, etc.
This stage of the configuration process, therefore, is about evaluating your needs, planning for good and bad traffic and then adjusting settings in your server accordingly. This can include looking at things like integrating server-level spam protection and preventing security threats, to configuring your domain and email redirections, etc …
(Have you configured your webhosting settings for handling things like emails, page errors, etc?)
After your web server settings have been fine-tuned and configured (if required), the next step is to configure various third-party sites or online solutions.
External Sites
The purpose of setting up external sites is that all content will be published from one central location (your site) and from there, it will be automatically distributed to other components of your web traffic system, or notify traffic-related web properties and services.
Once you add these external sites to your traffic network, content with links pointing back to your site is automatically posted to your search, social and aggregator accounts. Your site will then be exposed to a new audience and source of traffic.
Some web properties and online solutions will need to have accounts set up before configuring your site to save time and some will need to be done later, during the automation phase.
For example, here are just some of the accounts you will need to have set up before configuring your site’s settings:
Google Webmasters
(Google Webmaster Tools – create a Google-friendly site)
Google Webmaster Tools lets you tell Google about your site’s pages, submit XML sitemaps for automatic page indexing, and provides site owners with a range of useful data, SEO tools, and diagnostic reports about their website.
Once your account with Google Webmaster Tools have been set up, use the details to automate traffic settings in WordPress using plugins like Yoast SEO (see further below) and other applications.
Google Analytics
(Google Analytics)
Google Analytics lets you improve your site’s results, SEO, user engagement, marketing campaigns, and more, by tracking all user behaviour, pages visited, keywords searched for, search engine referrers, etc.
After setting up your up your Google Analytics account and site details has been entered, traffic tracking information can be added to all web pages in WordPress using a simple plugin used with other applications.
Bing Data And Tools
(Bing Data And Tools)
Bing Webmaster Tools is similar to Google Search Console. After setting up your account, the information can be used to integrate and automate traffic-related settings in WordPress and other applications.
WordPress.com
(WordPress.com)
As discussed in Part 2, WordPress provides users with the option of a hosted vs self-hosted website. We recommended choosing the self-hosted WordPress platform if you are planning to grow a professional business presence online.
WordPress.com (the hosted option), however, provides some great features, which can be accessed by a number of WordPress plugins. We recommend setting up an account with WordPress.com, therefore, and we’ll explain how to integrate these features into your automated traffic generation system in the next installment of this series.
Social Media And Social Bookmarking Sites
(Syndicate your content automatically to your social media accounts and get new visitors to your site)
You will need to have already set up your social media and social bookmarking accounts before you can integrate these with your traffic generation system.
Once you have set up and configured everything, you will be able to syndicate your content automatically to your social media sites and get new visitors to your site.
Make sure you have set up accounts and profile pages with all of the well-known social networks – Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Pinterest, etc.
There are lots of social bookmarking sites you can You can post your content to many social sites. You don’t need to go crazy, just pick the ones that will work well with your setup and/or content syndication tools.
(There are loads of social bookmarking sites you can syndicate your content to. Image: ShareThis.com)
Additional Solutions, RSS Aggregators, Etc.
There are a number of emerging web platforms and content aggregators that can serve as secondary sources of traffic. Some are free or provide free levels, and some are paid services.
For example, here is a content aggregator that lets you add your WordPress blog feed …
RebelMouse
(RebelMouse)
RebelMouse is an aggregator for your social profiles and RSS feeds. Your content is displayed in a Pinterest-like format and users can follow your page.
There are many different solutions that can be incorporated into your own web traffic blueprint. Please feel free to contact us if you need assistance exploring some of these further, or to discuss a configuration strategy to suit your needs.
Once you have configured your server settings and set up accounts with external services, it’s time to configure your WordPress site’s settings.
Configuring Your WordPress Site
The first step in configuring your site for traffic is to ensure that your global settings have been set up correctly.
Let’s go over some of the important points.
Global Settings – WordPress
By default, your WordPress admin area includes a Settings section that allows you to set up your site’s main settings …
(WordPress menu – Settings)
General Settings
Sections like Site Title and Tagline can affect your site’s SEO, search listings, etc …
(Settings Menu – General Settings)
Writing
The Writing Settings section contains an important and frequently overlooked built-in traffic notification system …
(WordPress Settings – Writing Settings Screen)
As stated in this section,
When you publish a new post, WordPress automatically notifies the following site update services …
Unless you have purposely chosen to prevent search engines from indexing your site, then your site will automatically ping the services entered into the Update Services text box
By default, when WordPress is installed, this section contains only one entry …
(WordPress Update Services)
WordPress lets you notify dozens of update services automatically – just add a list of update services to this section …
(WordPress lets you notify dozens of update services automatically!)
Download A Comprehensive List Of Ping Services For Your WordPress Site!
Click the link below to download a comprehensive list of reliable and authoritative ping services for your WordPress site or blog:
Download A List Of Ping Services For Your WordPress Site
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Note: If you need help setting up the list of ping services on your site, we recommend using a professional web services provider. You can find professional WordPress service providers in our WordPress Services Directory.
Reading
This section affects how your content gets seen by readers when they visit your home page and blog pages.
The syndication settings on this page can have an influence traffic. For example, choosing to display the full content vs summaries of your post, affects how your content shows up in RSS feeds and RSS email campaigns, and could play a part in someone’s choice to explore your site further, and whether or not they will visit your blog to read the rest of the content from excerpts, or read the content in full without the need to click through to your site.
As far as traffic is concerned, however, the most important setting here is whether the Search Engine Visibility checkbox is ticked or not.
Typically, you would want search engines to visit your site. Leaving the box unchecked enables your site to instantly notify various update services whenever new posts are published (see Writing Settings above). Unless there is a specific reason to discourage search engines from visiting your site, leave this box unchecked …
(WordPress Settings – Reading Settings)
Discussion Settings
Although discussion settings are mostly concerned with how users engage with content on your site, you have the option to allow notifications to sites linked to from your posts, and to allow link notifications from other blogs (pingbacks and trackbacks). This can work for you, but it can also drive bad traffic in the form of SPAM comments …
(Settings Menu – Discussion Settings Screen)
Permalink Settings
Your Permalink settings allow you to create SEO-friendly URLs …
(WordPress Settings – Permalink Settings Screen)
The examples below show some of the ways your SEO-friendly URLs can be configured …
(Configuring permalinks)
If you need help setting up permalinks in WordPress, refer to this step-by-step tutorial: Using Permalinks To Improve Your WordPress SEO
Configuring WordPress Plugin Settings
The WordPress developer community makes available plugins that help to add almost every type of functionality imaginable to your site, including plugins with features that help to improve traffic generation.
Here are examples of plugin categories and plugins that can help drive more traffic
Security Plugins – Blog Defender
Once again, it’s important to configure your website for handling both good traffic and bad traffic. No website or blog is completely safe from being attacked by hackers.
(Security Plugins help prevent bad traffic from causing your website harm)
Security plugins like Blog Defender help to make your WordPress site invisible to attacks from hackers and botnets.
More information:
SEO Plugins – Yoast SEO
SEO plugins help drive traffic by making your web pages easy for search engines to index …
(WordPress SEO plugins help increase traffic by making your site more search engine friendly)
Use a powerful plugin like Yoast SEO to improve your website’s SEO. Properly configured, this plugin not only makes your website easier for search engines like Google and Bing to find, classify and index, it also lets you specify how your content will show up in Google’s search results and social media pages, e.g. Twitter, Facebook, and GooglePlus.
WordPress Social Plugins
Allowing your visitors to easily share your content with members of their own social communities can help boost traffic to your site, especially if you post great content that adds value to readers.
(WordPress users can easily add social sharing to their website with WordPress plugins)
You can easily add social sharing features to your website using free or inexpensive WordPress plugins.
Many social sharing plugins allow you to specify which sites visitors can share your content to, embed social buttons into your content, set up custom post messages, display/hide share counters (e.g. number of likes), etc. Some social sharing plugins even allow you to ‘lock’ content which users can unlock by sharing your page.
Configuring WordPress Traffic Generation Theme Features
As well as configuring various plugins, many WordPress themes also include features that can help grow your traffic.
For example, in addition to options and settings for configuring layout and design aspects of your site, some themes also provide built-in features that let you improve SEO and site navigation structure for better indexing, easily add analytics, social sharing buttons, etc …
(Many WordPress themes include built-in traffic optimization features)
With many WordPress themes, adding social sharing features to your site is as easy as clicking a button …
(Many WordPress themes provide built-in social sharing features)
Other Areas To Configure
Last (but by no means least) in the configuration process, are the elements that need to be set up outside of the global settings.
This includes the following:
Website Legal Pages
Once again, when preparing your website for a growth in traffic, it’s important to plan not only how to handle bad and good traffic but also for all the things that can go wrong as more and more people find and begin to visit your website.
If you engage in any form of commercial activity online, you need to ensure that your site stays compliant with all government laws and regulations.
(Does Your Website Or Blog Comply With All Legal Requirements?)
We have written a detailed article on adding legal pages to WordPress here:
Tags And Post Categories
Tags & post categories help improve traffic by allowing search engines to better understand and index your website.
(Post categories help to improve your site’s SEO, which helps you get more traffic.)
As we strongly recommend in this article, your website’s post categories and tags should be discussed and set up during the Website Planning Phases.
In the configuration phase, you will want to review and make sure that the post tags and post categories you have set up.
Add A Site Map
A site map that displays all of your pages and posts to visitors is not only a useful navigation tool, it can also help external applications find your website content …
(A site map is not just great for visitors, but for traffic too!)
It’s important to note that an HTML site map and an XML sitemap are not the same things. Only search engine bots can read an XML sitemap. Although Google can index your pages just from an XML sitemap (which plugins like Yoast SEO will create for you – see earlier section), making it easier for visitors to find more pages on your site can result in increased traffic.
Don’t Forget Your 404 Error Page
When visitors searching for your website type in the wrong URL or click on a hyperlink pointing to a page on your website that no longer exists, they will normally be presented with a 404 Not Found page …
(A WordPress 404 Error Page)
Configuring your 404 page allows you to redirect web traffic that may otherwise be lost. …
(Configuring your 404 Error Page allows you to redirect traffic that may otherwise be lost.)
Although a 404 page can be set up in your web server, there are several WordPress plugins that let you easily configure your 404 page inside your WordPress admin area.
WordPress Traffic Automation System: Configuration Stage – Summary
Once your WordPress site has been fully set up and expertly configured, all you then need to do is publish great content consistently to start generating more traffic organically.
The process of expertly configuring a WordPress site, however, is quite involved , requiring the configuration and integration of a number of different components and external web properties …
(WordPress Traffic Blueprint – Configuration Checklist)
The knowledge and expertise involved in expertly configuring a WordPress site typically takes many website professionals a long time to learn.
Once you have configured your WordPress site, the next step is to automate as much of the process as you can. This step is covered in the next section of our WordPress Traffic Automation Blueprint series.
This is the end of Section 3
To keep reading this article, click here:
This tutorial is part of a comprehensive series of tutorials designed to help you learn how to grow your business online inexpensively with a WordPress-driven website and proven online marketing methods.
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